Essential News

● Roche’s Costa Rica Shared Service Center will provide IT services to the Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics divisions of the company in the U.S. and Canada

● The company has invested US$1.5 in infrastructure and equipment

● New center joins Roche’s two other global IT Shared Service Centers in Budapest (Hungary) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

San José, January 18th, 2018. Roche, the world’s largest biotech company and leader in vitro diagnostics, today officially inaugurated its new IT Global Shared Service Center in Costa Rica. Roche has invested US$1.5 million in the Shared Service Center which will support both the Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics divisions of Roche, handling IT support calls from employees across the U.S. and Canada. The capital expenditure includes infrastructure and high-tech equipment, as well as the hiring and training processes for its new employees.

The new facilities, based in Escazú Village, comprise approximately 2,300 square meters. The company has hired 100 employees for the positions in Escazú, including service desk agents, managers and trainers, and hopes to grow the reach of the Costa Rica Shared Service Center in the coming years. This new center joins Roche’s two other global IT Shared Service Centers in Budapest (Hungary) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

The President, Luis Guillermo Solís, participated in the opening of the new facilities and was pleased with the event as well as with the news shared by the company related to its results and the growth plans in our country. “The investment, infrastructure, quality and other conditions that Roche has found in Costa Rica to develop this kind of service activity with us, are not improvised. They are built over decades. Costa Rica constantly invests in education, even before becoming a Republic, and will continue to do so, since it is the undisputed basis of our development as a nation and will continue to be so. But these highly trained employees are also based on the economic stability, legal certainty, economic growth, the regulatory improvement we are achieving along with the OECD process and the peace of Costa Rica, which consolidates it as a global leading destination in the attraction of investments”.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Foreign Trade, Alexander Mora, highlighted this first opening of 2018, as a first crop of what has been planted. "In recent years, Costa Rica has positioned itself for its highly competitive conditions to attract and retain investment projects, especially in the service sector. It has grown rapidly and is one of the main drivers of national development, allowing Costa Rica to diversify its exports, sophisticate the type of economic activities, improving the employability of our people, the productive linkages and increasing the country's participation in the global value chains. All this has allowed that, Roche, a company recognized worldwide as an innovative leader in the field of healthcare, in areas as relevant as oncology, establishes and grows among us, and has become home to 250 Costa Rican professionals; with ambitious growth projections for the coming years. From the Central Government, we thank the company for the vote of confidence placed in Costa Rica and we will continue working to maintain and to strength the conditions that sustain that future growth ".

Steve Guise, Global Head of Roche Pharma Informatics, said, “Costa Rica has longstanding experience in the customer service sector, a stable economy, and above all, an excellent talent pool. We could not imagine a better location to support our teams in the U.S. and Canada, as well as being a source of talent for our broader LATAM IT team, which means a long-term commitment to the country and to its people.”

Jorge Sequeira, General Director of CINDE, mentioned “the new service center of Roche shows the evolution that the company’s business has had in the country. This kind of projects contributed in 2017 to generate more than 10.000 jobs in the service sector, directly impacting the quality of life of many Costa Ricans. We hope that Roche will continue consolidating its business in the country and trust Costa Rica to move along to new levels within its productive value chain”.

Referring to the long-standing relationship between Roche and Costa Rica, Domingo Rojas, Head of Global User Services, Americas stated: “Costa Rica has been the head office for Roche Pharma Central America and the Caribbean operations for more than 50 years. Quality, productivity and innovation are in the veins of the Costa Rican people. The country offers a service-oriented culture that makes it easy for companies like ours to establish and grow a good relationship. That is why, since 1973, our experience has been extraordinary and this helped us decide to continue to strengthen the relations”.

The Shared Service Center started its operations in June, 2017, at the Roche Pharma building in Ultrapark Free Zone in Heredia, and it moved to its new facilities in Escazú Village at the end of 2017. Interested potential applicants can apply at https://www.roche.com/careers/jobs/your_application.html

About Roche

Roche is a global pioneer in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics focused on advancing science to improve people’s lives. The combined strengths of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics under one roof have made Roche the leader in personalised healthcare – a strategy that aims to fit the right treatment to each patient in the best way possible.

Roche is the world’s largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and diseases of the central nervous system. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management. Founded in 1896, Roche continues to search for better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases and make a sustainable contribution to society. The company also aims to improve patient access to medical innovations by working with all relevant stakeholders. Thirty medicines developed by Roche are included in the World Health Organization Model Lists of Essential Medicines, among them life-saving antibiotics, antimalarials and cancer medicines. Roche has been recognised as the Group Leader in sustainability within the Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology andamp; Life Sciences Industry nine years in a row by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI).

The Roche Group, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, is active in over 100 countries and in 2016 employed more than 94,000 people worldwide. In 2016, Roche invested CHF 9.9 billion in Randamp;D and posted sales of CHF 50.6 billion. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information, please visit www.roche.com

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For more press information

Carlos Morales
cmorales@cinde.org